From what I know, the grading changes from state to state. I think that the most common system is from 1 to 6, but I am not fully positive! You could check with the high school league in your state because solo and ensembles should be recognized by the high school league... That's all I know about it, sorry! I think the point of grading is to just try your hardest and not understand it at all! I bet some directors don't even know exactly how the system is run!
Hope this helps!

it is different state to state, country to country and can be very subjective. Here in New York we have a grading system for solos that I often find dubious. There will be a piece with easy notes but challenging musicality and vice versa, but , alas, art is always subjective.

i agree...

i think there are other systems in different places.
i can't even understand how they grade people, im also having a hard time trying to understand the system.sigh

see, in our place i think the grading system is from 1-5
ooh...

HI,
In my Ohio, the music is graded for HS as Class A, B or C. There is a specific list of music to pick from and then the judges decide how the student plays based upon a scale of 1-5. 5 being terrible. I believe that the rules and music is decided upon periodically by a central comittee in the Ohio Music Educator's Association -generally a group society of the band and choral directors. The actual awarding of the students is a bit flexible and left up to the individual judge but generally if a student makes it to the end of a piece without loosing it totally, it's a guaranteed 3 or better. To get a 5, I would have to say that the student either didn't show up or they cussed out the judge.

Music level of difficulty is also graded on a few other scales which are a bit mysterious and either are left up to the individual publishers or a large sales house as far as I know.

I'm going to defer to others on the UK/or British grading system of student achievement. We don't really have something like this here in the U.S. When U.S. students need to be arranged according to their skills, there really is no universal grading setup. THey are generally auditioned. The only place in the U.S. where I've seen something similar to the British system so far is in the American Recorder Society. I believe that they have specific pieces , studies or scales for levels of acievement.

~Bilbo
N.E hio

can anyone explain to me the grading system in England? it seems to come up alot and I feel completelyconfused about what people are talking about

WEll, I live in Kentucky and here we grade on a scale of 1-4 so yeah it must be very different from place to place.

yup, that's right.
i live the in the Philippines.
1-5...and 5's the lowest.

Hi Fauna, check out
http://www.abrsm.org/?page=home
it's the site of the people who do the standard UK tests that are often refered to. It should answer all your questions (on UK grading at least).

Well that website confuses me, so here is basically what the UK system is (I did these grades)-
The ABRSM grades in the UK go from 1-8. You can't take grades 6-8 in any instrument until you've passed grade 5 or higher in Theory of music, just to make it a bit harder! For each grade there is a syllabus from which you choose 3 pieces to play (3 lists, one from each), one of which is solo and 2 accompanied. You also have to do sight reading and aural tests and learn the set scales and arpeggios for that grade (for grade 8 you have to learn just about every scale there is and play it slurred, tongued or staccato) and they ask you to play a selection of them in the exam. You have a proper exam with an AB examiner at an examination centre, or sometimes a school or something might get an examiner in if they have enough pupils taking grades. There are set marks for each thing you play and you have to get 100/150 to pass, 120 to pass with merit and 130 for a distinction. Hope that helps!

hey im from england lol
there are two types of grading system here
1 - grades 1 -8 but at gr5 u have to do a theory
2 - just grades 1 -8
im currently working to wards my gr4

emz, "just grades 1 -8", what grading system is that? It's not the same standard as AB grades is it? Is it called Trinity or something - I remember someone at school was doing those.

i think one is trinity and the other is arbsm or something i heard they both go up to gr 8 .

Yeah I think they do, but I'm not sure if grade 8 is the same standard in both, or if you have to play the same sort of things for the exam. Like some schools do their own grade system too but it's a much lower standard so the same number grade wouldn't mean you were at the same level of playing.

ABRSM is the one I did, which is the most common one I think, and most recognised.

ABRSM is the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music: that is around 5 (I think) music colleges in the UK who run exams in music performance, music theory and jazz music. ABRSM exams can be sat in the UK and all over the world.

Trinity is another music college which also runs music exams.

The standards of the two are really similar, the pieces on the syllabi are often the same. Grade 8 is the highest grade and a distinction at grade 8 is the standard expected for entry into the music colleges. To give you an idea of the standard, when I sat my Grade 8 I platyed Mozart's concerto in G, movt 3 of the Poulenc sonata and the Bach partita in A minor.

In the ABRSM system, after Grade 8 one can sit the ABRSM diploma, then the Licentiate and then the Fellowship in one of performance, teaching and conducting.

I think that's it!

i also heard that gr8 is equal to 2 gcse's
(for u guys who dont know at they are its a range of exams you have to take be4 u can leave school or stay on )